Coronation procession of Empress Elizabeth, Moscow 1742 Elizaveta Petrovna (Russian: Елизаве́та (Елисаве́т) Петро́вна) (29 December [O.S. 18 December] 1709 – 5 January 1762 [O.S. 25 December 1761]), also known as Yelisavet and Elizabeth, was the Empress of Russia from 1741 until her death. She led the country into the two major European conflicts of her time: the War of Austrian Succession (1740–8) and the Seven Years' War (1756–63).
Portrait of Catherine II with the Chesme Column in the background, 1794
Gustav III painted in 1777 by Alexander Roslin Gustav III (24 January [O.S. 13 January] 1746 – 29 March 1792) was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Queen Louise Ulrica who was a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia.
Portrait of Ivan VI of Russia Ivan VI Antonovich of Russia (Ivan Antonovich; Russian: Иван VI; Иван Антонович; 23 August [O.S. 12 August] 1740 – 16 July [O.S. 5 July] 1764), was proclaimed Emperor of Russia in 1740, as an infant, although he never actually reigned. Within less than a year, he was overthrown by the Empress Elizabeth of Russia, Peter I's daughter. Ivan spent the rest of his life as a prisoner and was killed by his guards during an attempt made to free him.
ON THIS DAY: 1760 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Liegnitz – Frederick the Great's victory over the Austrians under Ernst Gideon von Laudon. Click here to find out more about the Battle of Liegnitz.
End of the Irish Invasion ; — or — the Destruction of the French Armada, caricature by James Gillray French warships, labeled Le Révolutionaire, L'Egalité and The Revolutionary Jolly Boat, being tossed about during a storm blown up by Pitt, Dundas, Grenville and Windham, whose heads appear from the clouds. Charles Fox is the figurehead on Le Révolutionaire which is floundering with broken mast. The Revolutionary Jolly Boat is being swamped, throwing Sheridan, Hall, Erskine, M.A. Taylor and Thelwall overboard.
The Expédition d'Irlande ("Expedition to Ireland") was an unsuccessful attempt by the First French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars to assist the outlawed Society of United Irishmen, a popular rebel Irish republican group, in their planned rebellion against British rule. The French intended to land a large expeditionary force in Ireland during the winter of 1796–1797 which would join with the United Irishmen and drive the British out of Ireland. The French anticipated that this would be a major blow to British morale, prestige and military effectiveness, and was also intended to possibly be the first stage of an eventual invasion of Britain itself. To this end, the French Directory gathered a force of approximately 15,000 soldiers at Brest under General Lazare Hoche during late 1796, in readiness for a major landing at Bantry Bay in December.
Loss of HMS Ramillies by Robert Dodd HMS Ramillies was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 April 1763 at Chatham Dockyard.
In 1782 she was part of a fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves off Newfoundland. Ramillies was badly damaged in a violent storm, and was finally abandoned and burned on 21 September 1782.
Australia named New Holland, in the 1794 Samuel Dunn Map of the World 1794 Samuel Dunn Map of the World in Hemispheres is a general map of the world, or terraqueous globe with all the new discoveries and marginal delineations, containing the most interesting particulars in the solar, starry and mundane system by Samuel Dunn and Thomas Kitchin in 1794. The map also features star charts, map of the moon, map of the solar system and numerous other features along with earth's both hemispheres. Samuel Dunn Map is so large and so rich in detail that it is exceptionally challenging to do it full justice in either photographic or textual descriptions.
Portrait of Johann Joachim Winckelmann by Anton von Maron, 1768 Johann Joachim Winckelmann (December 9, 1717 – June 8, 1768) was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the difference between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. "The prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology", Winckelmann was one of the founders of scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style on a large, systematic basis to the history of art. Many consider him the father of the discipline of art history.
Morrocan Ambassador Admiral Abdelkader Perez, 1737 Haj Abdelkader Pérez was a Moroccan Admiral and an ambassador to England in 1723 and again in 1737. On 29 August 1724, he met with King George II and the Prince of Wales. His Spanish family name indicates his descent from morisco refugees.
French 'comfort women' transported to Louisiana as brides for the colonists, 18th Century
Battle of Culloden The Battle of Culloden (Scottish Gaelic: Blàr Chùil Lodair) was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. On 16 April 1746, the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart fought loyalist troops commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The Hanoverian victory at Culloden decisively halted the Jacobite intent to overthrow the House of Hanover and restore the House of Stuart to the British throne; Charles Stuart never mounted any further attempts to challenge Hanoverian power in Great Britain. The conflict was the last pitched battle fought on British soil.
A print showing a man stripped to the waist and hung from a beam by his hands with his legs tied to a log, ready to be whipped with a knout, a heavy scourge-like multiple whip usually made of a bunch of rawhide thongs attached to a long handle, c. 1765
ON THIS DAY: 1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir Bay) – Battle begins when a British fleet engages the French Revolutionary Navy fleet in an unusual night action.
ON THIS DAY: 1783 – The Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti and the Russian Empire signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, establishing Georgia as a protectorate of Russia The Treaty of Georgievsk (Russian: Георгиевский трактат, Georgievskiy traktat; Georgian: გეორგიევსკის ტრაქტატი, georgievskis trak'tati) was a bilateral treaty concluded between the Russian Empire and the east Georgian kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti on July 24, 1783. The treaty established Georgia as a protectorate of Russia, which guaranteed Georgia's territorial integrity and the continuation of its reigning Bagrationi dynasty in return for prerogatives in the conduct of Georgian foreign affairs. Georgia abjured any form of dependence on Persia or another power, and every new Georgian monarch would require the confirmation and investiture of the Russian tsar.
"Muladona" from an 18th Century text In Catalan mythology a Muladona or Donamula (mule-woman or woman-mule in Catalan) is a female mule with a human womans head. Legend has it that a young woman was cursed by the townspeople for being irreverent and irreligious and the curse turned her into a mule. She is said to wander the mountains, especially at night, joining mule trains. It is thought that the mules are frightened by her presence and stampede and they may even fall into ravines and die.
The Gordon Riots, depicted in a painting by John Seymour Lucas The Gordon Riots of 1780 were an anti-Catholic protest against the Papists Act 1778.
The Popery Act 1698 had imposed a number of penalties and disabilities on Roman Catholics in England; the 1778 Act eliminated some of these. An initial peaceful protest led on to widespread rioting and looting and was the most destructive of the 18th century in London. Painted on the wall of Newgate prison was the proclamation that the inmates had been freed by the authority of "His Majesty, King Mob". The term "King Mob" ever after denoted an unruly and fearsome proletariat.
The Riots came at the height of the American War of Independence with Britain fighting American rebels, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic. They led to unfounded fears that they had been a deliberate attempt by France to destabilise Britain before an imminent French invasion.
